The invention relates to apparatus and methods for training (i.e., adjusting) gin saw assemblies and ginning rib assemblies of cotton gins to improve the operating efficiency of cotton gins.
Cotton gins, which are briefly described hereinafter with reference to FIG. 1, include gin saw assemblies containing a large number of spaced parallel gin saw blades that extend precisely between the ginning ribs of a ginning rib assembly. Optimum efficiency of operation of a cotton gin requires that the individual gin saw blades be perfectly aligned in the spaces between the ginning ribs in order to minimize friction between the gin saw blades and the cotton being ginned and improve the efficiency of the ginning process. It is also essential to optimum efficiency operation of a cotton gin that the gin saw blades be sharp. The blades of a cotton gin ordinarily become dull and misaligned, relative to the ginning ribs, at least once per season. The dull gin saw blades must be replaced once or twice per season. Replacement of the gin saw blades requires removal of the entire gin saw assembly from the cotton gin. After the gin saw blades have been replaced, or "stacked", it is necessary that they be precisely aligned to correct any misalignment, warpage or the like that may have occurred. Typically, the individual ginning ribs are also out of alignment after a season of ginning. In the past, the manual alignment or training of gin saw blades has been a very painstaking, laborious process involving slight bending of portions of individual gin saw blades using a bifurcated "training" tool and positioning of thin shims between certain gin saw blades and the spacers therebetween, in order to adjust or train the individual gin saw blades so that they are all perfectly spaced and perfectly parallel to their axes of rotation. A template, usually supplied by the manufacturer of the cotton gin, is manually used to check alignment of the gin saw blades. After adjustment, as described above, the gin saw assembly and ginning rib assembly are re-installed in the cotton gin and checked for proper alignment. In most instances, the desired accuracy of alignment has not been achieved on the first try, and numerous repetitive steps of removal, readjusting and re-installing the gin saw assembly, and the ginning rib assembly are required before the desired accuracy of alignment is attained. Typically, this process has required an average of approximately four days for a worker skilled in training gin saws and ginning ribs. This is an excessive amount of time, especially if the need to replace the gin saws and/or train them arises during the ginning season, during which time a cotton gin should be operating as nearly as possible to twenty-four hours per day. A four day interruption during the ginning season obviously represents a serious loss to the owner of the cotton gin, and great inconvenience cost to cotton farmers, who have a limited number of trailers in which harvested cotton is hauled from the cotton harvester to the cotton gin. (If the cotton gin operation must be halted, the trailers remain full, and the cotton harvesting stops.) Yet, despite the "down time" that may be necessary in order to replace and train a gin saw assembly, it is essential that this "down time" be incurred, if the gin saws and ginning ribs become seriously misaligned, due, for example, to ingesting of a large, hard metal object or a piece of wire or the like. This is because the operating efficiency of a cotton gin whose gin saws and ginning ribs are badly misaligned can be reduced by as much as thirty percent or more. Furthermore, the increased amount of friction that usually accompanies badly misaligned gin saw blades and ginning ribs can generate a great deal of heat that sometimes leads to fires in a cotton gin.
Several years ago, I invented a gin saw training stand that included a pedestal on which an entire gin saw assembly, including its bearings, could be mounted after being removed from a cotton gin. The device included a pivotable rib template that allowed me to position the template immediately adjacent to the edges of the individual blades of the gin saw assembly so that each individual blade could be aligned precisely with calibration marks on the template. I could then slowly rotate the gin saw blade assembly by hand, utilizing a typical forked gin saw training tool to aid in alignment of misaligned, warped blades. The use of this device enabled me to reduce the amount of time required to train one gin saw blade assembly from four days to one-half of a day. Although this was a great improvement over the previous methods of training gin saw blade assemblies, the problem remained that even though the gin saw blade assembly would be perfectly aligned when reinstalled in the cotton gin, the ginning ribs of the ginning rib assembly usually are also out of alignment, and up to now, there has been no practical means (other than trial and error removal, adjustment, re-installation and checking of alignment) of accurately adjusting the ginning ribs relative to the blades of the gin saw blade assembly.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method that facilitates precise and rapid training or adjustment of both gin saw blade assemblies and ginning rib assemblies.
It is another object of the invention to provide an apparatus and method for training gin saw blades and aligning ginning rib assemblies so that they will be accurately and precisely aligned to each other after they are re-installed in a cotton gin.
It is another object of the invention to avoid the need for trial and error techniques of aligning gin saw blades and ginning ribs that require repeated removal and re-installation of gin saw assemblies and ginning rib assemblies.